Effigy Words and Music by Molly Healey

Another day’s been cruel and the night is long, and you can’t face the in-between So you settle into a soft embrace and you turn on another machine You’ve forgotten how to reach for a friend and you’ve lost the desire to try And you just can’t take anymore No you just can’t take anymore

You found her, loved her, gave her a ring, and she made your life complete Now she’s left you standing on the side of the road with your heart shattered down by your feet So you try it all over again And it breaks you all over again And you just can’t take anymore No you just can’t take anymore

All your days are filled with apathy And your nights are laced with lethargy And you’re praying to your deity With your multi-colored effigy But the world won’t spin in infinity And the future’s full of fragility I wish I could pull the blinders from your eyes And show you what I’ve seen And show you what I’ve seen

Oh there’s snow of salt and lands of dunes And gorges running out to the sea And dust and mud and fire and rain And things bigger than you and me And the only person that you need is staring back in the rearview mirror And you won’t go back anymore No, you can’t go back anymore

He was raised with the well-to-do Top of his class, and his dreams to pursue Looking at him, you would never know his mind was breaking in two He locked up his bedroom door Let the media fight his war And he waited for someone, or something, to show him more

Took medication once just for a thrill And soon he couldn’t pay the bills He watched his faded dreams float away with every refill Then he let go in the middle of the night He’d spent the rest of his short life Looking for a quick fix that was made in America

She married young at the age of nineteen A prom king and a homecoming queen He plucked her up out of misery with promises crafted and keen Now she’s raising an army of four He keeps his pistol in the bedroom drawer He takes to the bottle And friends don’t call them anymore

He never asked her if she agreed She was his to oversee If only she had known Would things have turned out differently Her whole life is her prison cell It’s a story that she’ll never tell It’s her homegrown hell And it was made in America

Nothing is ever as easy as it seems How a place can see such nightmares and such dreams

She saved her pennies since the age of nine Her daddy worked on the factory line Mama left when she was ten, Her daddy couldn’t give her enough She crossed the border after high school They all took her for an immigrant fool Nevertheless, she persisted And opened up a restaurant in June

She counts her blessings each and every day Don’t believe what they all might say Give or take a little time, things might not have worked out this way Against resistance she remained unfazed And she worked the rest of her days For a dream that could only be Made in America Two Deaths Poem by Kate Murr

Crow death and buzzard death Stood on an Ozark hill Surveying the hollows and treetops Beneath the cloak of something darker

As heavy morning sky pressed Down their feathers they agreed On so little, except this: That they should separate

And away they split to meet The fathers in the cold fields The unlucky, young, and screeching And finally the stoically violent parade

Of a small town’s widows Alive Words and Music by Molly Healey

What’s wrong with heartbreak and tears If they wake you up inside If absence makes the heart grow fonder Does the muscle muscle up with time And is it possible to find some reward In the loneliness around the bend Maybe pain is truly your weakness Leaving room for experience

So you jump back in You jump back in And when the cold water stuns you again You feel alive inside

What’s wrong with an empty house If you have more room to breathe You’ll spread your wings and enjoy the silence While the independence grows its teeth Can you find some solace in the knowledge That this floor is trampled by a billion feet And when you lay your footprints down You take a piece of everyone you meet

So you jump back in You jump back in And when the cold water stuns you again You feel alive inside

There’s something very human about The feeling when your heart has bled Just like the way you look at silent skies And you pray for a storm instead The downward spiral of a roller coaster Is a feeling full of fear and flight The warm sensation of the absence of pain When you’re healed from the cruel snake bit The Switch Words and Music by Molly Healey

The switch has just been flipped The evening’s on the way She’ll throw you for a loop She’s shifty like vermin that way

It’s all about the lighting The moon is right on cue You fidget with your fingers But the shapes you make aren’t there

Resolutions rusted They don’t hold up with time You find the words to speak But the most important part won’t hear

Strangers now are tracking The room is starkly still The scent you leave will trip the wire They have appetites to fill

The morning light will point through And cast its shadows on the day You lay and wrap a million sins Around you like a glove

You’ll win and lose and win again But never come out ahead She’s watching from the walls and trees Waiting for the time to be right Dear Juliet Words and Music by Molly Healey

Unprotected from the elements around Like a leaf attached to a spider’s web in the breeze Have we fallen from the grace of our own crowns Into the rabbit hole they drag us further down

We were lucky lovers wishing on a star And the din around us silenced by our vows But lover’s half-life finds us where we are And we suffocate like fireflies in a jar

But if you close your eyes If you close your eyes And you lay across this forest floor so sweet I will close my eyes I will close my eyes And together, we’ll depart across the sea

A seed of tumult planted long ago Now the dragon in his castle’s been unleashed Can a tender seedling in this poison grow Is there anywhere else left for us to go?

If you close your eyes If you close your eyes And you lay your head down on this bed so soft I will close my eyes I will close my eyes And together, we’ll depart across the sea

There’s a meadow where we’ll rest our weary heads Where the storm has long since passed and winds are quiet The vanilla sky warms flowers pink and red Far away from coffins lying in our stead

And if you close your eyes If you close your eyes And you lay across this forest floor so sweet I will close my eyes I will close my eyes And together, we’ll depart across the sea Mr. Connelly Words and Music by Molly Healey

Steps onto the porch on a sunny afternoon Checks the garden for the flox to be in bloom Collects the berries and the peppers and the beans Puts them in a bag and strolls across the street

Hello my name is Mr. Connelly I’ve just retired from the high school this last year Hello my name is Mr. Connelly I don’t believe I caught your name, my dear

They’ve come to visit, it seems it’s been so long How’s Melissa, sixth grade now, or do I have that wrong? Collects the garbage, makes a run to the grocery store Melissa drives him, because he doesn’t anymore

Memories of rain Memories of the smell of books Memories of friends They flow like wind through the rusty corners of his mind

Frowns and tears and conversations full of fear To him there’re only gardens, friends, and memories dear How can one forget what one never knew to start Forget the now and keep the past close to your heart

Hello my name is Mr. Connelly I’ve just retired from the high school this last year Hello my name is Mr. Connelly I don’t believe I caught your name, my dear Hopeless Romantic Poem by Lil Olive

Where is the hopeless in hopeless romantic? Where’s the despair in choosing to care? Here’s to romance, here’s to love Here’s to long summer dates And getting in late And pink skies above

My father once told me, on a summer night like this About convertibles and pretty girls, and drive-in movies He’d pop open the glove box, and resting there A fragrant, white gardenia just for her hair

What’s wrong with that? I think not a thing It’s the queen’s royal jelly Before all the stings It’s what you’ll remember When you’re eighty years old And a soft summer evening Sparkles like gold

So here’s to romance, here’s to love Here’s to swimming on summer nights And being serenaded by bugs A nightbird might sing you A sweet, haunting song That says, “Hey, just enjoy, you’re not here for long Hey, just enjoy, you’re not here for long” Time Words and Music by Molly Healey

Words are flying round you just like hailstones in a storm You bow your head into it, and you try to outperform No longer one day at a time; more a minute, or a second, or a breath

Take one look around you, and you’ll see there’s more alive Than just the ringing of your lifeline, and the deadlines it contrives The world won’t fall to pieces, if you let the tempest blow itself on out

Oh, you can plant your flailing feet And you can find the peace you seek If you just remember this

I’m driving north and east and west, at any given point But instead of pleasing some, everyone I disappoint But when the spinning settles down, I stop to catch my breath, and I see you

There’s plenty work to leave undone and questions to ignore Enjoy the last few sips of wine before you ask for more Sit back and put your feet up, and turn your chin up to the sparkling stars

You could give me all, and more And bring this battered ship to shore If you just remember this, my love

You have time You have time If you worry that the sun will set You’ll miss out on its beauty You have time

Give me time Give me time If you worry that the sun will set You’ll miss out on its beauty You have time

Maybe your world’s exploding in a million brilliant stars Or they all have lost their luster, and the bulk of them burnt out Or maybe you’re standing in between and falling through the cracks of apathy

Stand and let the voices and the noises disappear Looking from a distance, the choices become clear And sometimes battles that you thought were so important didn’t need be fought

Oh, we can plant our flailing feet And we can find the peace we seek If we just remember this, my love

We have time We have time If we worry that the sun will set, we’ll miss out on its beauty We have time